Kolkata plunges in darkness as power stations trip

Kolkata: Large parts of the city, including the state secretariat and the city police headquarters, plunged into darkness Thursday evening after most of the power stations of electricity provider CESC tripped. Emergency services and the Metro Railway were also disrupted.
"At one point of time there was a shortfall of 1,000 mw which is roughly two-thirds of the power requirement in the evening," a CESC spokesman told.

Power supply was also cut off to the major hospitals, the cremation grounds and even the Palta pumping station, which supplies water to the city after all the power stations and sub-stations of the CESC, excepting two at Budge Budge, tripped.

Metro services were also disrupted for some time because of the lack of power supply.